So I realize I've been contributing more questions than useful suggestions lately. I'll try to rectify that with an upcoming post. But in the meantime I want to describe what I made last night, and see if anybody has any suggestions.
So at the farmer's market we finally saw some decent corn (wet spring=not a good summer for corn in Lane County, I guess), and so we had corn on the cob and pork chops last night (and caprese salad with fresh basil, but I imagine you all know how to do that). We had some local-made blackberry applesauce in the fridge that we'd bought at the farmer's market a few weeks ago and never did much with, so I decided to make pork chops with applesauce, which I'd never done before. I searched a few recipes and didn't find one that particularly excited me (plus they mostly told you how to make applesauce, when the whole point was to use this yummy applesauce we already had).
So what I ended up doing was this: I browned the pork chops a little bit on each side, then put them in a baking dish and baked them at 350 for about 40 minutes, turning them once (this much all the recipes seemed to agree on). What I did with the applesauce was mix in a little bit of Worcestershire sauce and then just pour the mix onto the chops when I put them in the baking dish. I poured more on when I turned them.
This came out alright. Akiko said she really liked it. But I felt like it could have been improved on. Any suggestions?
I never actually knew that you cooked the applesauce and porkchops together....that makes so much sense! I have to helpful suggestions other than cinnamon (I like cinnamon with pork) but I do have a funny story!! When I was in 4th grade it was my first year at AES in Delhi and one day at lunch I was eating an applesauce cup next to a British friend of mine. He watched me eat my applesauce for a minute and then bravely piped up "where is the bit of pork?" I had no idea what he was talking about at the time but have since learned that in the UK, applesauce comes with pork in it :) weird, huh.
ReplyDeleteWow - so if you're British you open up a little plastic cup of applesauce at lunchtime and a piece of pork is floating in it? Sounds kind of weird.
ReplyDeleteYour reaction makes me wonder if maybe it would have been tastier to just cook the pork chops and pour cold applesauce on afterward. Might have been more appley. I just saw all these recipes for baking them in it and so I thought that was the orthodox way...
Not that I would be an expert, but I bet cooking them with the applesauce keeps the chops moist. But I could see it muddying the applesauce flavor at the same time. So maybe cook some and save some for the last minute?
ReplyDeleteYes I agree that a piece of pork in your Mott's cup would be weird...but that kid certainly thought that not having the pork was weird! To each his own, right?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lemon Verbena that the chops probably stay moist because of the applesauce. Maybe her suggestions is a good approach? I don't even know...I am so NOT experienced with porkchops and applesauce. I am still a pork chops and creamed corn girl at heart :)